Insecurity: Abuja protesters demand immediate sack of Monguno, Magashi

HURIWA asks FCT minister to set up civilian JTF

Hundereds of aggrieved Abuja residents, under the aegis of Guardians of Democracy and Development Initiative (GDDI), have staged a peaceful march in Abuja to register their disapproval of the appalling level of insecurity in the country.

The protesters, led by Danesi Momoh, particularly accused the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), and the Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd) of inaction in curtailing the unfortunate development.

Brandishing several placards, the protesters, who converged at the Abuja Unity fountain, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to replace Monguno and Magashi with credible and competent persons.

They warned that should Buhari fail to heed their call, they would be left with no choice but to join forces with those demanding his resignation or impeachment from office.

Momoh, flanked by co-convener of the group, Mr. Igwe Ide-Umanta, justified the position of the group thus: “We wish to start with the statement credited to Monguno, where he was quoted as saying: ‘People are getting tired and are beginning to gravitate into other means of self-help.’ Truth is that Nigerians are not just getting tired; we are suffocated, frustrated, threatened, apprehensive and completely uncertain about our safety and that of our loved ones.

“We have had to tolerate a National Security Adviser who has no record of achievement in his seven years in office. Right under his supervision, intelligence has been ignored (as has now been exposed by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives).”

MEANWHILE, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked the Minister of Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, to set up an armed civilian joint task force to aid the security forces.

Reiterating calls for the immediate dismissal of non-performing service chiefs and the NSA, as well as deployment of the 12 Tucano jets to bomb terrorists’ hideouts in the North West, HURIWA also blamed the National Assembly for embarking on recess when the nation is under severe security threat by terrorists.

The rights group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, asked Buhari to listen and take action on the warning from the Nasarawa State governor on the presence of Islamic terrorists in Abuja.

It, however, applauded the FCT Administration for reactivating the joint security operations between the FCT and the contiguous states.

Onwubiko said the decision by the FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, to rally all heads of security institutions in the contiguous states to Abuja to embark on joint security patrols was a great idea that ought to be sustained long after the current heightened state of insecurity abates because “security is not an ad hoc arrangement, but effective security is to be made as a long term objective.”